Store Pits Iron Man Vs. Batman In Battle To Bring In More Tips

If you’re looking to give people a reason to drop a dime (or preferably a dollar) in that tip jar, how about turning the whole process into a popularity contest that taps into your customers’ inner comic book fan boy/girl?

That’s what the folks at Depanneur, a grocery store in Brooklyn, did recently when they turned their tip jar into a battle between Batman and Iron Man. Of course, both of these character’s alter egos are wealthy beyond all imagination (though Tony Stark did beat out Bruce Wayne in a recent Forbes list), so neither of them are much in need of extra cash.

Regardless, this approach is a fun way of encouraging customers to show their appreciation — both for your staff and for their favorite fictional crime fighter.

When I was growing up (1970s), there was a grocery store in San Antonio called Handy-Andy. On the end of your shopping cart were two plastic cards, each with the same number printed on them. After you went through the checkout, you took one of the cards with you to your car, while the bagger took the cart (with the other card) to a staging area off to the side of the store. You then pulled your car over to this covered bay, and handed the card to one of the waiting guys, who would find the corresponding cart and load the groceries into your car for you. I don’t know if they got tips, but if a grocery store provided that service today, I’d pay for it.

how selfishly american of you. you get to enjoy the lower prices which the lower pay of employees ensures, with the understanding that you, the consumer, can choose to help out the people who have worked hard for you to be able to frequent a store and purchase a good, and you choose only to do so in case of extraordinary help.

i would love it if all stores would cancel tipping, and raise employees’ wages, and just raise the prices on all goods that way cheap-asses would be forced to pay the people who work hard in order to run a business who services they enjoy.

these people work hard. yes the tipping system defrays the costs of employment from the employer, but it is a cost you would have to pay anyway if the employees made a living wage. get the math?

even if you get only acceptable service, those workers have been cleaning and mopping and stocking and doing all sorts of work you don’t see and are not aware of just to keep the establishment running. this work directly benefits you as a consumer and customer of the store.

have some love and appreciation for your fellow man. tip a little no matter what. tip more for better service.

Clearly you’ve never been to my local coffee shop, with insane prices for food and beverages served by inattentive hipsters who would rather adjust their music or talk to their friends rather than give you quick service. Get down off your soap box please.

1) If every store raised their prices to pay a “living wage” would that living wage not be a living wage anymore?

2) If they raised their pay to a “living wage”, what’s to keep them from putting the tip jar out? These aren’t waiters who are paid less than minimum wage. These are just some of the ever growing workers who just put out a tip jar.

Bruce wayne has a fricken belt. True, that belt had an endlessly stupid amount of one-time-use only things, such as shark repellent, but it’s not beating missiles and flying and repulsors. Its just not.

It’s that damned Catsuit and the Eartha Kitt “purr”. No male can resist, no matter if it’s Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, Eartha Kitt, Michelle Pfeiffer, or Halle Berry in the suit… Not a batman, a catman, nor a human.

I think the best tipping scheme I’ve ever seen was at a piano bar in Dallas. There were two pianists and there was a competition to see which football team had the most support (or some silly title, I can’t exactly remember), measured purely in dollars. So, for your team to “win” its fans had to tip the most money. Someone tipped $100 on behalf of UT, so that they could “beat” LSU who had the highest tip contributions at that point. It was really ridiculous the money these people were dropping so their team could “win” this totally insignificant competition, but what a brilliant and lucrative idea on behalf of the performers. It probably helped that everyone was drinking.